I don’t mention it often, but I own a LOT of books. Like maybe 3,000 or more (I haven’t counted in a while, lol!) I’ve been collecting books since about 1988, when I discovered that my Stephen King collection consisted of mostly first editions/printings, and that some of those were actually worth a lot of money. Since then, I’ve paid close attention to the value of books, how to spot first printings and how to check the condition of books before I buy them. In recent years I’ve scaled way back on new purchases, simply because I am lucky enough to get review copies from publishers. BUT all those years of book buying have resulted in a lot of unread books, as you can imagine.
The purpose of this post is to select a few books from my personal stacks and commit to reading them in 2018. I’m starting with five books, because I’m pretty sure I can handle that amount. The books I’ve chosen aren’t necessarily collector’s editions or valuable, but they are books I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t read yet. I’ll be reading these throughout the year as I have time between review commitments, and of course I’ll be posting reviews here on the blog.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I kick myself now for not buying the first edition hardcover of this book when it came out in 2000 ( I believe). It’s probably worth some $$. This is the “two color” paperback edition and it’s not even a first printing, it’s a 6th. BUT as a horror fan I really need to have this in my repertoire.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. I’m a big fan of Beukes’ Broken Monsters and Zoo City, and this is a must read for any Beukes fan (so I’ve been told). This is another horror book that I need to read this year.
Three Days to Never by Tim Powers. It breaks my heart that there’s a Tim Powers book out there that I haven’t read! I bought this in 2006 before I started blogging, so I really have no excuse:-)
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett. I don’t get to talk about Ann much on this blog, since her books fall firmly in the category of literary fiction. But she has written two of my ALL TIME FAVORITE books, Bel Canto and State of Wonder. Commonwealth is her most recent release, which came out in 2016. I automatically buy all her new releases, but I’m sad that I haven’t been able to tear myself away from my review commitments to read this. And in case you don’t know, in addition to being a best-selling author, Ann owns an independent bookstore in Nashville called Parnassus Books. I’m signed up to follow their blog, and I just love their weekly posts about upcoming book signings, author spotlights, lists of staff recommendations, and best of all, tales and photos of their “shop dogs,” employees’ dogs who come with their owners to work every day! I’d love to know if anyone here has visited Parnassus Books, and if I ever have the chance to travel to Nashville, that is going to be my first stop!
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. This might seem like a strange choice to include in this list, and this is actually an unsolicited review book that I received last year. BUT I want to read this SO BADLY that I’m including it on this list to make myself accountable. Plus I’ve never read anything by Rowell before and I want this book to be my first.
And there you have it. Obviously there are many more books from my stacks that I’m dying to read, but I want to tackle these first. Let me know in the comments if you’ve read any of these, and which you recommend I should start first!
I loved both The House of Leaves (which left me very unsettled) and The Shining Girls. On balance I’d recommend you start with the latter, because I thought it was magnificent.
House of Leaves sounds unsettling. I don’t read too many horror books, but this one sounds awesome!
It’s supposed to be very unsettling, which is one reason I’m dying to read it. I’ll let you know!
Thanks for letting me know you’ve read them, I always get more excited to read something when I know others enjoyed them!
I am envious of your shelves! Shining Girls is on my list too… though I didn’t realise it was horror!
I think it’s horror, I believe it’s a mystery with supernatural elements.
3000+ books?! 😮 You have your own full-blown library, Tammy!
I actually read Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl last year, which I think(?) is what led Rowell to write Carry On. Fangirl’s main character is a college freshman who writes fan fiction about a popular fantasy series for teens, and Carry On was the title for the novel-length fan fiction she was writing during that school year. (Hopefully that’s not too confusing…?) Anyway, I enjoyed Fangirl more than I’d expected, so I’d definitely like to read Carry On as well. So that book gets my vote.
I think Carry On is a story about the “fictional” characters in Fangirl? I think. Super excited:-)
Yes, it’s about the fictional characters. 😉
Have you invested in a bookcase with glass doors for your most valuable books yet?
I keep moving, which keeps reminding me of a significant downside of owning a lot of books, which has tamped down my book buying. Now I just need to save enough money to install built-ins at the new house so I have room for the books I already own, let alone new books.
Sadly I haven’t invested in a glass door bookcase, but I really need to. I need a couple of weeks off work just to reorganize and go through everything. And part of the problem is that I used to move around a lot, and so each move resulted in reorganizing by necessity. But I’ve lived in this house for almost 17 years without HAVING to pull down each book from the shelves.
I still haven’t properly organized my books from our move almost a year ago. Which may not sound like a long time to you, but I waste a lot of time looking for books (I spent more time trying to find those C.L. Moore books for yesterday’s post than I did on the post itself). But I’m not very motivated since the limited space means some books on a storage shelf in the basement storage and since eventually I want new bookcases built.
Me too! I spend so much time searching. One of the “forgotten” books I wanted to include in this post was The Goldfinch. Sadly, I couldn’t locate it!
I’ve only read Carry On of these, but it was so much fun! Hope you enjoy it Tammy!
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Great to hear, I can’t wait!
3000! Excellent.
I know you have a huge library as well. At least I’m not alone:-)
You are well ahead of me!
Your bookshelf looks AMAZING! The thing dreams are made of.
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Aww thanks! Now to organize it better;-)
I need to read Carry On still too. Moving it up.
I’m so excited about Carry On, I hope it’s great!
What a great idea. I can’t wait to hear what you think of The Shining Girls!!!
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I’m very excited to read it! Now that I’ve committed, I need to request less review books so I can actually fit these in!
I read and very much enjoyed Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, it’s not the best book ever written but it is very cute and it made me laugh a couple of times!
Commonwealth has been on my TBR since its release but I didn’t have the chance to pick it up either even if it sounds amazing!
Oh good, glad to know Carry On was a fun read. I’ll remember that when my mood needs “fun”.
I remember The Shining Girls being a GREAT horror story when it came out.
But that many books… it begs the question: how do you have them sorted? If at all? 😀
Weeellll..it started with sorting by author, but after all my bookcases were filled up, there is basically no sorting system at all☹
What a great idea. And finally, at the end, you posted one I read – Carry On. It’s not my favorite Rowell book but it was quite enjoyable. I’m pretty sure I own the same copy of House of Leaves and nope, I’ve not read it either. I’ve followed Parnassus Books ever since you linked me with them and I would love to go there someday – Nashville isn’t THAT far away but it would be a hard day trip. I love the idea of a bookstore with dogs – go figure!
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I’m glad you’re following Parnassus. Just curious, what was your favorite Rowell book?
I loved Attachments. A lot of it was told in email form and it was just a fun, light read. My least fave so far is Landline. The only one I haven’t read yet is Fan Girl which seems to also be her most popular. Seems I am staying away from the hype once in my life 🙂
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Ha ha, I think I have a copy of Attachments somewhere (lol see above photo of book shelves), I’ll have to dig it up!
Shining Girls is on my list. I usually don’t like horror (I know, I know) and was thinking of it as time travel mystery. Now I’ll have to go read some reviews…
I think it’s one of those hard to categorize books. Horrific mystery?
The Shining Girls was an amazing discovery, and I loved how that book drew me in completely – despite the seriously bloody elements it sported. I can’t wait to read your review!
And messy bookcases are the BEST! 🙂
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Oh good, I’m even more tempted to start The Shining Girls very soon
Carry On is one of my favourite books, I love so much about it! Good luck with your reading 🙂
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Oh yay! I will definitely read it soon
Wow, that is a lot of books! Feel free to send some my way 😉 The good thing though about having so many unread books is that you are totally prepared for an apocalypse and will have lots of reading material lol.
I also plan to read Carry On this year! And it will also be my first Rainbow Rowell book. I’m a little jealous you have the pretty paperback with the artwork XD
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I think the paperback is fairly new, it’s very different from the hard cover. I hope we both get to read this and love it!
What a fascinating range of books – as I haven’t read any of them, I don’t feel in a position to make any recommendations as to where to start – except with your heart… I look forward to hearing how you get on with these, Tammy and I look at your marvellous bookshelves with envy!
Thanks Sarah, my heart wants to read them all at once
I can’t remember if I’ve read that Lauren Beukes book; it could have been Broken Monsters because the covers are so similar! It not, I have that on my to-read list too. Rainbow Rowell is also an author I’m interested in but I have yet to try!
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I think you’re right, the covers have the same color scheme
I need to read more Rainbow Rowell! And PArnassus Books sounds awesome, I’d love to follow their “shop dogs” too! How fun. 🙂
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Parnassus is great, and the dogs are so cute
I tried to make it through House of Leaves a couple of years ago. I failed. It was more me than the book, though. It was also a library copy, and I ran out of time. 🙂 I told my husband last year I want my own copy for my birthday this year. Let’s see if he remembers. Ha! 🙂 I hope you manage to read them all and love them.
Such a great book collection 🙂 I wish I had space for so many shelves. I have layers of books in small cases, then boxes of books which won’t fit onto the cases, it’s a nightmare. I mostly only buy e-books now because they don’t take up space.
I read Carry On and really enjoyed it. I loved Fangirl as well so going into the world of Simon and Baz was great.
I think I have The Shining Girls on my e-reader. That’s one for my TBR this year as well I think.
Hope you manage to read the books you’ve chosen 🙂
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The Shining Girls is excellent. You should start with that one definitely (although I only say that because I haven’t read the others). I always fancied reading The House of Leaves, I did pick up a copy from the library a couple of years ago (I think) but it was so daunting…. Hope you have better luck with it that me (never even got started before I had to return it. Maybe I’ll try again after I read your thoughts).
Lynn 😀
Oh good, I’m happy to hear you loved The Shining Girls:-) I’ve heard House of Leaves is pretty wild and might be hard to get into, but I’m going to try:-)
I laughed when I saw House of Leaves….! I remained on my desk for *so* long before I summoned the courage to start (and even more to finish it). But I needed to have -just like you. Good luck 😀
Now I’m so curious to hear whether you liked House of Leaves or not;-)
I absolutely love the looks of your shelves though!! I think mine is slowly going to resemble yours in a couple of years too hahahah I need to check out House of Leaves too someday!! Hope you enjoy all these books when you get around to them Tammy! I want a post telling me how to spot the 1st editions that are worth $$$$$ though!! 😀 😀 😀
I’ve actually thought about doing a book collector’s post, although I’m certainly no expert, but great idea, I might do one! Thanks for the idea:-)
The Shining Girls is one of my favorites! Carry On was all sorts of fantastic but I think I’d actually recommend reading Fangirl first since the two kind of tie in with one another. 🙂
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Good to know about reading Fangirl first. I have a copy of that too!
The definitely that one first! I read them back to back and it was a good decision. I loved them both.
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